Back in 2008, I owned a brilliant torch. It was a blue anodised aluminium torch with 19 bright white LEDs set in its face. It was a brilliant torch. I kept it in the car because that is one of the places where a torch is most useful, well, at least for me. But in 2008 it was stolen when my car was broken into – no doubt they used it to break into other people’s cars. It was the only thing that was stolen, but despite the damage to my car and the realisation of just how easy it is to break into, I was most upset about the loss of my torch. In the time that followed, I looked for a replacement torch. At first I tried to replace it with another one of its type, but I just couldn’t find that particular model. After a while, I tried looking for something that I considered mostly equal, or perhaps even, greater than; but to no avail. You see, the torch was the perfect fit for my hand, it only required 3 AAA batteries, and they were fitted in a cylindrical-triangular form, rather than in series, which meant the torch wasn’t obnoxiously long, like a Maglite. The aluminium was cast in such a way to form a tactile grip along the battery compartment, such that holding it was both comfortable and secure. Its 19 bright white LEDs threw light far beyond what was necessary when outdoors, and indoors it could light up a room to almost day light brightness. It was a simple torch, none of this, SOS, UV, Laser nonsense, a simple rubber push button switch set it to On, or Off. But best of all, was the weight. It had a reassuring heft to it. Just by holding it, you could tell that it was built to last; it wasn’t the sort to explode into a million pieces if you dropped it on the pavement. It is now 2014, and only now have I replaced that torch. I knew exactly what I wanted; utility. And I knew exactly what I didn’t want; standard. To deal with the utility, I now needed a body worn torch. I of course knew that I could buy a head torch, or one of those right angle body worn torches that...

Back in 2008, I owned a brilliant torch. It was a blue anodised aluminium torch with 19 bright white LEDs set in its face. It was a brilliant torch. I kept it in the car because that is one of the places where a torch is most useful, well, at least for me. But in 2008 it was stolen when my car was broken into – no doubt they used it to break into other people’s cars. It was the only thing that was stolen, but despite the damage...